Summer Colds

Why do I get one most summers?

I woke up Saturday with the telltale scratchy throat, and a hint of fever. I lounged big time all the Holiday Weekend. My fever broke (such as it was) Monday. Tuesday the aches were finally leaving, and now I'm just giving it another day before I return to the Ancestral Digs...My Sainted Mother doesn't need my summer cold.

As always, summer colds disappoint...there's so much you want to do, but can't. The weather was lovely all weekend, almost hot by Truckee standards. I'm a little superstitious about saying "My San Francisco Giants got Hot as the weekend ended", but they did, winning two Monday and Tuesday.

In Tuesday's game in San Diego, the Giants' starting lineup had not one player from the Giants' Opening Day lineup! These new Giants (and the veterans who were on the DL back in April) hit and ran well, and again the crowd noise from Petco Park was a chuckle.

Now to be fair, San Diego is a beautiful City with many diversions. Were they my San Diego Padres, I'm not sure I'd be leaving the beach early (especially with the epic swell making for excellent surfing) to plunk down serious cash to watch the 20 games out of first place Padres.

So, in a mostly empty ballpark, you could really here the traveling Giants fans in the third inning chanting "Let's Go Rockies. Let's Go Rockies" when the scoreboard showed the Colorado Rockies were leading the Arizona Diamondbacks who have been playing like the Giants did a year ago. The Rockies beat Arizona while the Giants won gaining a game back in their race back to the top. The Giants are six games back with 20 games to play.

This season has been a season of wonderful firsts for the Giants, and there was another one Tuesday night. Brett Pill, called up to the Majors this week, started at 1st base, and in his first Major League At Bat, knocked a two run homer out of the park!

The last SF Giant to homer in his first MLB AT Bat was Will Clark who homered in his debut against Nolan Ryan at the Astrodome in 1986. Clark, one of the most popular Giants ever was nicknamed "Will the Thrill" After Pill's debut Big League Knock, the #PillTheThrill hashtag trended worldwide on Twitter. Welcome to the Big Leagues, kid!

Still in the fairness vein, it's looking more and more like it's going to take Divine Intervention to push the bruised and battered SF Giants back to the top of the NL West.

Watching and praying